430 CRAT,EGUS 



it fills a unique place in the English landscape in constituting tens of thousands 

 of miles of hedgerow. Besides its efficacy as a hedge, due to its thorny 

 nature and dense growth, it has in its rich, polished, green foliage much 

 beauty as well, although well-kept hedges do not flower much, owing to the 

 flowering wood being cut away in autumn. 



The naturally grown hawthorn has a singular beauty of habit. It forms 

 a comparatively slender trunk (i to 2 ft. in diameter, however, in old 

 specimens), supporting a rounded head of dense branches gracefully pendulous 

 at the ends. When in blossom no object of our waysides has greater beauty, 

 and its charm is heightened by one of the sweetest of open-air perfumes. 

 The flowers of the hawthorn open from the middle of May until early June. 

 In accounting for its associations with the games and festivals of early 

 May-time, we 'must remember that these grew up under the Old Style 

 calendar, when May 1st occupied the same place in relation to the equinox 

 that May I3th does at the present time. The hawthorn is very rarely in 

 bloom on our present first of May. 



Var. AUREA, Loudon. Fruits yellow. A form called FRANCOIS RlGAUD 

 has also yellow fruits and yellowish branches. 



Var. ERIOCARPA. Fruit woolly when young, deep red. 



Var. FILICIFOLIA. Leaves finely cut. 



Var. FLEXUOSA, Smith (C. tortuosa, Ifort.) Branches curiously twisted 

 and curled. 



Var. GRANATENSIS. Nearly or quite unarmed; branches pendulous. 



Var. HORRIDA. Branches extremely thorny ; forming conspicuous nests of 

 thorns at the joints. 



Var. INERMIS COMPACTA. Very dwarf and quite unarmed ; a remarkable 

 form. 



Var. LACINIATA, London (C. fissa, Bosc], Leaves up to 3 ins. long and 

 wide, very deeply pinnately lobed and with a wide space between each lobe, 

 the lobes doubly toothed. 



Var. LUTESCENS. Leaves yellow. 



Var. PENDULA. A very graceful form with pendulous branches ; there is 

 a form of it with variegated leaves PENDULA VARIEGATA. 



Var. PR^ECOX, Glastonbury Thorn. This remarkable variety, besides 

 bearing a crop of blossom at the ordinary season, flowers and produces young 

 foliage in winter. The popular belief that it breaks into flower about 

 Christmas Day has frequent support in fact, although much depends on the 

 season. In the south and west of England, if November and December 

 be mild, it will have some flowers open on Old Christmas Day (January 7th). 

 If those months are cold and the winter severe and long, the flowers may not 

 expand until March or April. On the other hand, I have gathered flowers in 

 November. The legend of the Glastonbury Thorn is, briefly, as follows : 



Joseph of Arimathea, after the crucifixion of Christ, came to England to 

 found Christianity. He went to Glastonbury, where, his exhortations having 

 but little influence on the inhabitants, he prayed that a miracle might be 

 performed in order that they might be convinced of the divine nature of 

 his mission. God granted his prayer, for, on thrusting his staff into the 

 ground^ it immediately burst into leaf and flower, although it was then 

 Christmas Day. The wonder was repeated on every anniversary of that 

 day. 



An old tree grew in the vicinity of Glastonbury Abbey until about the 

 beginning, of the nineteenth century, to which popular belief attached this 

 legend. The variety is worth growing, not only for the sake of the old 

 legend, but because of its interest in flowering in mid-winter. The flowers 

 are not borne so abundantly as in May, but they have the true hawthorn 

 fragrance, and this brings vividly to one's mind (as odours do), with pleasurable 



